Springtime is the time during which trimming has the biggest effect on your tree. This creatagus was trimmed back to two leaves as soon as the stems started to turn purple. This stimulates backbudding, and bifurbication of this years’ growth. All in order to create a denser canopy.

]]>https://www.growingbonsai.net/trim-for-growth/feed/0198120th Bonsai Trophyhttps://www.growingbonsai.net/2oth-bonsai-trophy/
https://www.growingbonsai.net/2oth-bonsai-trophy/#respondSun, 03 Feb 2019 08:22:23 +0000https://www.growingbonsai.net/?p=1949It is now only a few more days before the doors open for the 20th “Noelanders” trophy. Or as it is called as of this year, just “The Trophy”.Over the years, the Trophy has grown to become the first important bonsai event in the year.

With a large selection of top-quality bonsai from all over Europe, several demonstrations and a wide range of traders this is a place where each and every bonsai lover can find things to see and do. This year however promises to be something nothing short of spectacular.

In the 20th edition of the Trophy, the organization has gone through great lengths to find old price winners and previously nominated trees. As these trees were already great when they were on the trophy 5, 10 or even 20 years ago, time will have done its work and matured the trees even more. I am looking forward to seeing some well-known trees again!

Next to seeing trees, the Trophy is also the sort of event where you can meet all your old friends. As many people from across Europe make their way to Genk, Belgium for this, it makes an excellent moment to catch up! As a result, many enthusiasts decide to not just go for the day, but stay the whole weekend.

I have taken the liberty of copying the programme from the Trophy Website, so you can directly see: This is a place to be next weekend!See you in Genk?

In some way there is something magical about growing Ginkgo bonsai. Bonsai is of course all about growing miniature trees that give the impression of age and tranquility. And how better to do this by growing a living fossile? The species Ginkgo biloba is estimated to be 200M years old. It is the oldest tree species known, and as such, growing them for bonsai is a mythical experience.

Getting the seed

Frozen Ginkgo seeds along the road

Getting the right seeds for growing Ginkgo bonsai from seed is important. Naturally, there are online stores that sell ginkgo seed. These however, are often old and completely dried up. Personally, I prefer to get seeds fresh, and collect them from the ground. For this, I went to a place with a number of Ginkgo trees along the road. Beware though: The seeds are covered by a fleshy outer layer, which smells a bit like ranzid butter. And the smell jumps into your skin. So be warned and prepared. Bring rubber gloves with you.

In October/November the seeds should be ripe and fall to the ground so you can easily collect them. Do note that as the seeds are smelly, most trees planted now are male plants, that do not create seeds. So you have to find a stand of trees with female trees in them, as often found in botanical gardens.

The seed coat has to come off the seeds. For me it worked well by putting them in a container half-filled with water. And then shaking the container vigourously. After some 15 minute of shaking – rinsing and shaking, the seeds were effectively clean. Failing to clean the seeds will result in a lot of fungus buildup during germination.

Natural Stratification

Twisted Ginkgo

In order to germinate, ginkgo seeds need a period of warm rest (warm stratification) followed by some 6 weeks of cold rest (Cold stratification) while the seeds are kept moist. This will tell the seeds that fall and winter have passed, and that is it time to start germination. There are loads of suggestions in the web on how to do this. I am personally a big fan of letting nature do its job. So I took a largish container, filled it partially with substrate. Then put the seeds on top of the substrate. And topped the whole lot off with pine bark. This I put outside in the winter weather, to be ignored untill spring.

In spring it took a little bit for the first seedlings to appear. It was not untill early May that the first shells started popping and roots came out. So excited! After 3 weeks most seeds I had brought had germinated. And at the 4 leaf stage I decided to start planting them into individual pots. And some individuals were given a bit of movement in the young green trunk. Let’s see where this experiment brings us!

In my part of the world temperatures are falling. Days are shortening and many trees are dropping their leaves. Time therefor to look at our bonsai and consider the winter. Next to providing some form of protection agains the effects of cold wind on bonsai, the effect of sun in winter on bonsai, and in general the reasons why bonsai die in winter, some people remove the leaves from deciduous bonsai in late fall.

Why remove leaves from deciduous bonsai in Fall?

In nature, trees drop their leaves by themselves, at the time that the trees are ready. So why would one want to remove the leaves from bonsai before the tree indicates that the leaves are ready to drop? If you look into the subject a little bit, there are a number of good reasons to do this, but also some things to keep in mind. The benefits can roughly be divided in 4 categories. Aestetics, Maintenance, fysiological and health. The first two actually partially overlap.

Bonsai leaf removal in fall: Aestetics

Obvious to some, a revelation to others.. good deciduous bonsai look their best in winter. So to better and longer enjoy the winter image: Remove the leaves.

Bonsai leaf removal in fall: Maintenance

Fagus bonsai branch structure

In line with the aestetics.. In fall, when the tree is still active you have a window to wire and trim your trees, without too much risk. If your fall does not turn into deep frost directly (An incidental night time sprinkling of fairy dust is not deep frost) your trees will recover quickly from wiring and trimming. After all, the tree is in prepare-for-winter mode, and is actively sealing all entrances to the tree (This is actually what causes senesence: The tree putting little layers of cork at the attachment of the leaves, closing of that entrance to the tree).

So fall is a good time for many deciduous to do your basic wiring and trimming. If you do this after the leaves have dropped, the trees are withdrawing sap from the branches, making them more brittle on the one hand. On the other hand, it means that any microbreaks in the branch are not dealt with as quickly, increasing the risk of dieback on that branch (in my personal experience Oak and Carpinus are really sensitive here; These I avoid wiring from full leaf drop to bud swelling).

Bonsai leaf removal in fall: Fysiological

Carpinus bonsai in fall

Leaves contain a lot of nutrients. These are moved from the leaves into the roots, trunk, branches and buds for use in the next growing season. This leads to a lot of movement of fluids in the tree. And as we know that sap transport is related to thickness growth in bonsai, the relocation of nutrients pushes a cycle of branch thickening. In more refined bonsai this is something we would like to avoid. As such, the leaves are sometimes removed in fall.

Bonsai leaf removal in fall: Winter health

In order to keep your trees as healthy as possible throughout winter, we like to have our plants and post cleared of debris. Between leaves insects will overwinter. The foliage keeps moisture around the trunk enhancing moss and fungal growth. All things we ideally do not have around our trees. We certainly do not need them during times that bonsai are dormant, and thus not actively repairing damage done to bark and trunk. In order to assist the plant, removing foliage can help the plant stay healthy. Naturally, that does not mean you have to pick the leaves from the plant. Once they drop, you could also collect them.

Concerns regarding leaf removal in fall

When leaves turn color and eventually turn brown, the plant extracts valuable nutrients and trace elements from these leaves. By removing them early, you are removing part of these nutrients. This means that you weaken the plant by removing the leaves. Considering that for certain elements up to 50% may be recoved from the leaves, this can be a considerable effect. Here it is important to keep in mind that through a good broad fall fertilizing, this effect could be countered.

Furthermore, some deciduous trees do not drop their leaves untill spring time. Best known is the European Beech. This has a good reason. By keeping the leaves, the effect winter wind has on the canopy is reduced. As such the buds and fine twigs have extra winter protection. Naturally, you would never put your bonsai directly in the cold winter wind, so this is not really a big concern. But it is something to keep in mind.

]]>https://www.growingbonsai.net/winter-preparation-in-bonsai/feed/01904Why do bonsai leaves change colour in fallhttps://www.growingbonsai.net/why-do-bonsai-leaves-change-colour-in-fall/
https://www.growingbonsai.net/why-do-bonsai-leaves-change-colour-in-fall/#commentsSat, 10 Nov 2018 17:00:21 +0000https://www.growingbonsai.net/?p=1898We all know it. Deciduous trees turn from green to shades of yellow/orange/red and eventually brown at the end of the growing season. But why? Do trees make loads of pigments in fall turning the tree into a festival of colour for our enjoyment? Or is something else happening?

Trees have the colours all year round

Carpinus bonsai in fall

First of all, let us get one thing clear. The colours of the fall foliage are not due to your bonsai making more pigments. It is actually the reduction of some pigments that causes this. Because all the colour in the leaves is already there. You just do not see the colour. Chlorophyll in the leaves absorps the red and blue parts of the light, which can now not be reflected. As a result, the reflected light by chlorophyll is green. As chlorophyll is so much more abundant then the other main pigments (carotenoids and anthocyanins) and its efficiency in absorbing the reds and blues, leaves appear green.

So, why do bonsai turn red in fall?

In fall the tree is taking action to not loose valuable nutrients. Deciduous trees are not able to protect the leaves from freezing in winter. Instead, they have another strategy: They drop their leaves. As these are full of hard-gained nutrients, trees first relocate the nutrients they can re-use. Part of this process is a reduction of general transport between the leaves and the plant. As such, sugars produced by Chlorophyll start to build up in the leaves. Once this happens, the leaves stop rebuilding chlorophyll, and the concentration here is slowly reduced. As this reduces light absorption by chlorophyll, the other pigments become more visible. On top of this, under the right circumstances, plants will invest in these pigments, making some years much more colourfull than others.

]]>https://www.growingbonsai.net/why-do-bonsai-leaves-change-colour-in-fall/feed/21898Trimming and wiring the little oneshttps://www.growingbonsai.net/trimming-and-wiring-the-little-ones/
https://www.growingbonsai.net/trimming-and-wiring-the-little-ones/#respondWed, 07 Nov 2018 17:00:38 +0000https://www.growingbonsai.net/?p=1876I really enjoy growing bonsai from seed and seedlings. It is of course not the fastest route to growing a bonsai, but I find it really enjoyable. This weekend it was time again to trim and wire these smallest of trees in my garden. Every year I trim these back, and I only allow them to grow a few cm each year. This is the road to the finest of bonsai. It is however also the slowest!

What you can hopefully tell from the pictures is that I choose to remove the strongest shoots every year, leaving smaller side branches to take over. These have grown slowly, and as such have short internodes, ideal for finely developed canopies.

]]>https://www.growingbonsai.net/trimming-and-wiring-the-little-ones/feed/01876Fertilizing bonsai and nutrient storage in fallhttps://www.growingbonsai.net/fertilizing-bonsai-and-nutrient-storage-in-fall/
https://www.growingbonsai.net/fertilizing-bonsai-and-nutrient-storage-in-fall/#commentsSun, 04 Nov 2018 17:00:57 +0000https://www.growingbonsai.net/?p=1895Growers of bonsai know: Trees have a lot of nutrients in their leaves. To get the plant to grow and make more leaves we spend a lot of time and energy providing the right fertilizer throughout the year. As soon as the tree is not getting the right blend of nutrients, we see the leaves change colour or even display patterns in colour such as yellowish leaves with dark green veigns. So what happens in fall?

Nutrient retrieval

In fall, deciduous trees take precautions for winter. They empty out the leaves of the more mobile nutrients. A recent study* tried to quantify to what extent this really is substantial. They found for three tree species (Oak: Quercus robur, Pine: Pinus nigra and Alder: Alnus glutinosa) there are substantial differences, but all do resorp a lot of macro nutrients and some of the trace elements.

The figure here shows the percentage of each element that remains in the leaf upon leaf-drop. So we see that for all three species, half of the Nitrogen (N) is retrieved. For Alder and eik it is clear that Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorous, Sulfur and Potassium are resorbed in high levels. Interestingly, pines do not seem to resorp these all that much.

Now what does this mean? One thing to consider is the ever-lasting dogma that people think you should not fertilize trees in fall. However, if you look at deciduous trees, they act in a way that indicates that nutrients are indeed dear to them. This could mean that fertilizing strongly in fall will help trees prepare for the next year.

]]>https://www.growingbonsai.net/fertilizing-bonsai-and-nutrient-storage-in-fall/feed/11895NRW bonsai Dayshttps://www.growingbonsai.net/nrw-bonsai-days/
https://www.growingbonsai.net/nrw-bonsai-days/#respondSat, 13 Oct 2018 08:42:13 +0000https://www.growingbonsai.net/?p=1853At the end of September the exhibition of the state of northrein westfalia had their annual exhibition. Being a member of a bonsai group in NRW, I was there to in general help out. Also, it was the first show with a tree of mine on display (jay!).

]]>https://www.growingbonsai.net/nrw-bonsai-days/feed/01853A raintree in the Rainhttps://www.growingbonsai.net/a-raintree-in-the-rain/
https://www.growingbonsai.net/a-raintree-in-the-rain/#respondTue, 09 Oct 2018 19:02:23 +0000https://www.growingbonsai.net/?p=1843A few weeks ago I had the chance to join a friend of mine to a bonsai show in Sao Paulo. On a cool spring day, we went to the botanical garden of Sao Paulo, and strolled through the show. My shirt was quickly soaked, because spring weather is 32c, no wind, high humidity. In any case, I saw exotic tropicals such as Jabuticaba:

Jabuticaba

But what caught my attention even more were some of the raw stock. Of course, raintrees (Pithecellobium tortum) are from Brazil. However, I did not expect to see many for sale. After all, in Europe I have NEVER seen one grown by anyone. They must be rare, right? WRONG. Every seller had a few of them, at insanely affordable prices. Needless to say.. I could not help myself and needed to get one.

I was not in Brazil for fun, so the tree had to do some travelling. Here it is looking out over the Copacabana. I told it, it was not allowed to go to the beach while I was at work!

Raintree at copacabana

After quarantine & repotting I modified a hanging lantern into a small greenhouse enclosure.

With all the rain lately, I decided to take some actions, long overdue. I converted the website to a secure connection. Although this website does not store sensitive information or ask useds for their daya, somehow google has decided to play nicer to people with a safe connection. So.. From now on you should see the green padlock when you are browsing my website.